Oscar Gottlieb Christgau was actively involved in the temperance movement in the United States for more than fifty years. He began, in 1915, as a speaker for the Anti-Saloon League of Illinois and was later appointed editor of the Illinois Edition of The American Issue, the Anti-Saloon League newspaper. It was in Illinois that Christgau began working with F. Scott McBride, who was then state ASL Superintendent. Christgau became his assistant and continued to speak, write, and organize upon behalf of the prohibition amendment. When McBride took on the position of national ASL General Superintendent in 1924, Christgau followed him as Assistant National Superintendent. For the next two decades, throughout the Twenties and Thirties, he worked tirelessly for the League and its policies. In the Twenties, he continually urged fall enforcement of the 18th Amendment; and then, in the Thirties, after the amendment had been repealed, he urged the passage of prohibition laws within local communities.
As assistant to McBride, Christgau had many responsibilities. He was manager of the national and regional conventions of the ASL. He supervised all of the necessary local arrangements, arranged for speakers, and coordinated the convention schedules. Christgau was also in charge of the ASL's National Speaker's Bureau. In this capacity, he sought out nationally prominent speakers willing to preach the gospel of temperance to conferences and local churches. Such speakers included Billy Sunday, World War I hero Alvin York, and temperance stalwart Sam Morris.
Christgau was a pioneer in the use of temperance dramas as a vehicle for gaining converts to the cause. Among others, he authored a dramatic debate entitled, "Can the Law Be Enforced?" and a play "Senator North's Deciding Vote." Christgau appeared in many of these productions himself.
In 1942, Christgau was elected State Superintendent of the Iowa ASL. This was to be his last full-time temperance position.
From the guide to the Oscar Gottlieb Christgau Papers, 1908-1971, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
